How to Use Activity Steps in Primavera P6: A “Step-by-Step” Guide

What are Activity Steps in P6?

Activity steps allow you to break down activities into smaller units and track their completion. They can function like a simple checklist to make sure all parts of an activity are addressed. They can also be given weights to control the overall percent complete of the activity. Here is an example of how to use steps for an activity like installing tile in an office building:

Activity: Install Tile Flooring

This example uses “weighted steps,” which means the completion of each step contributes to the overall completion percentage of the activity based on its assigned weight.

Step 1: Enable Activity Steps for Your Project

To start using activity steps in Primavera P6, you need to activate the setting that enables activity step tracking. Here’s how:

1. Navigate to the Project’s Calculations Tab:

• Open your project in Primavera P6.
• Go to the Project menu and select Project Details.
• Under the Calculations tab, check the box for Activity Percent Complete Based on Activity Steps.

Activating this setting ensures that Primavera P6 will recalculate the physical percent complete for each activity based on its steps.

Step 2: Set the Percent Complete Type to “Physical Percent Complete”

In Primavera P6, the Percent Complete Type determines how progress is tracked for an activity. To ensure that activity steps influence the progress calculation, you must set the Percent Complete Type to Physical Percent Complete. This is done by:

1. Selecting the Activity: In the Activities window, select the activity for which you want to track progress using steps.
2. Open the General Tab: In the activity details, navigate to the General tab.
3. Set the Percent Complete Type: Choose Physical Percent Complete from the dropdown options. This ensures that each step you add will directly affect the progress calculation for the activity.

Step 3: Add Steps to Activities

Now that activity steps are enabled and the percent complete type is set, you can begin adding steps to your activities. There are two ways to do this:

A. Manually Add Steps

1. Open the Activity’s Steps Tab: Go to the Steps tab within the activity details.
2. Click Add: Click the Add button to create a new step.
3. Define Step Name and Weight: Enter the step name (e.g., “Site Inspection”, “Material Approval”) and assign a step weight (the percentage of completion each step contributes to the overall activity). For example, if you have four steps in total, each with a weight of 25, each step will contribute 25% to the overall activity completion.

B. Use Predefined Step Templates

Primavera P6 allows you to create Step Templates that you can reuse across multiple activities. This can save time when you need to assign the same set of steps to different tasks.

1. Create a Step Template: Go to the Enterprise menu and select Step Templates to create a standard set of steps for future use.
2. Assign Templates to Activities: In the Steps tab, you can select and apply a template to quickly assign a predefined set of steps.

Step 4: Track Progress and Update Activity Status

Once activity steps are created, you can track progress by updating the status of each step:

1. Mark Activity as Started: In the Status tab of the activity, check the Started box to indicate that the activity has begun.
2. Update Individual Steps: In the Steps tab, check the Completed box for each step as it is finished. Primavera P6 will automatically update the physical percent complete based on the weight of the completed steps.
3. Partial Completion: For steps that are partially completed, you can indicate the progress using the Step Percent Complete field. This allows for granular tracking of progress and ensures that each step’s completion is proportionally reflected in the overall activity progress.

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